Missoula Food Bank Thanksgiving Giveaway Monday and Tuesday

From noon till 6:00 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, the Missoula Food Bank will be giving away free turkeys and all the other ingredients for a Thanksgiving dinner to needy families at the Missoula County Fairgrounds.

Program Operations Director Kelly Hess said over two thousand turkeys will be given away to needy families for Thanksgiving.

"I think the giveaway program just came out of need," Hess said. "There was an evident need during the Thanksgiving season. Everything's more expensive and we realize that so many people need a helping hand and there's the culture of Thanksgiving to be able to sit down with family and friends and enjoy this special meal, so we decided to step it up and make this offering."

Hess said over 2,000 turkeys have been donated for this year's food giveaway program.

"If the numbers are close to where they were last year, we should have enough, but if there are more, then we might need extra," she said. "Along with a turkey, we have paper bags full of other Thanksgiving necessities, like a bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots, an onion, some stuffing, some green beans, some cranberry sauce, pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie and a pie crust to go with it."

Hess said there were several grocery stores that have been extremely generous in donating food for this year's Thanksgiving giveaway.

"We want to thank the Orange Street Food Farm, Missoula Fresh Market, Albertsons, and many of the other grocery stores have stepped up to make this happen,and then the generous donations of the public."

Hess said the overall value of turkeys and Thanksgiving fixings total more than $26,000 this year.